Better Than That
by NewDrWhoFan
Summary: Rewriting history - backwards - for the Doctor and Rose, creating should-have-been moments, courtesy of the Big Bad Wolf. 9Rose. Mostly fluff. Epilogue now complete!
1. The Parting of the Ways

_Time Vortex, Cassandra, spacesuit helmet, metacrisis... we don't have any purely Doctor/Rose on-screen kisses! So, here's a timey-wimey "first kiss" challenge... that I'm giving myself. Huh. My mission: to somehow get the Doctor and Rose to legitimately kiss (each time for the first time) in every Series 1 episode. Pure and simple. Enjoy!_

 _Dedicated to **Jessa L'Rynn** because Nine._

 _Disclaimer: Surprise, surprise, I don't own_ Doctor Who _. Nor do I get anything from writing these stories - except wonderful, constructive reviews! Wink, wink; nudge, nudge ;)_

 _As yet un-beta'd._

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - 01.13 - The Parting of the Ways**

"I think you need a Doctor."

Bad Wolf sensed the Doctor summoning the Time Vortex from Rose, even as his lips met hers.

But before she lets go, Bad Wolf has one last mission. One that she's just set herself.

All that is, all that was, all that ever _could be_.

Oh, this is going to have been fun.

Because, there was no way that this gentle press of lips should feel so right, and only be their very first kiss.

* * *

No, Doctor, we can do better than that...

* * *

Rose's heart leapt at the telltale sound of the TARDIS materializing. The ship hadn't been destroyed by the Daleks' missiles! But - what? - she could see the Doctor, right there, standing by the TARDIS' console. She could actually see the inside of the TARDIS, appearing around her? The ship was materializing around her - and around the Dalek that had been guarding her. They were both standing on the entry ramp, as the Dalek swiveled its eyestalk around, focusing on the Doctor.

Instead of taking cover, the Doctor just shouted, "Rose, get down!" He expected her to just let him get shot? "Get down, Rose!" he ordered, even more urgently.

Rose prayed he had his trademark tricks up his sleeve as she took cover behind a coral support strut.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" The Dalek screamed, aiming its gunstick and firing a laser blast right where the Doctor _had_ been standing.

Suddenly, Jack appeared from behind another support strut, and fired at the Dalek with a massive gun of his own.

The creature's casing exploded, spilling out smoke and revealing the presumably dead Dalek within.

"Ya did it," Rose breathed, pulling herself shakily to her feet.

The Doctor moved towards her past the console, and Rose climbed up onto the platform to meet him. His arms opened invitingly, and she stepped gratefully into the embrace, impulsively reaching a hand behind his neck to pull his lips down to hers. The Doctor froze, but as Rose pulled back from the kiss, his eyes were closed and his lips followed hers for just an inch...

"Feels like I haven't seen you in years," Rose greeted, meeting his gaze as the Doctor's eyes opened.

He licked his lips. "Told you I'd come an' get you," he replied.

Rose grinned at him. "Never doubted it," she assured him.

"I did," he admitted, smiling as he held her out at arms length, looking her over. "You alright?"

"Yeah. You?" Rose asked, hands resting on his chest, still buzzing with fear, and relief, and they're surrounded by Daleks, and Jack and the Doctor are alive...

"Not bad; been better," he told her lightly, releasing her at last to investigate the exploded Dalek.

"Hey," Jack called, stepping closer to the console, "don't I get a kiss?"

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _See? Get it? Originally, Jack asked for a hug ;)_

 _And... the tenses in the first section are in a bit of temporal flux, in case you wondered._


	2. Bad Wolf

**Chapter 2 - 01.12 - Bad Wolf** (or, **"Go-Daigo, Go!"** )

 _"_ _We'd just left Raxacoricofallapatorius. Then we went to Kyoto. That's right, Japan in 1336, an' we only just escaped..."_

* * *

"Your Imperial Majesty! Ashikaga's army is overtaking our last defense; we cannot hold them!"

As the bowing soldier waited for Emperor Go-Daigo's response, he cast a suspicious glance towards where Jack was held at spear point, along with the Doctor and Rose. Jack sent him a wink, before the messenger refocused his gaze on the floor in front of his feet.

"Well, your Majestic-ness," the Doctor addressed the Emperor, "you can either try an' hold 'em off, here, skewerin' us before you're skewered yerself, or," he looked over his shoulder to where they had parked the TARDIS. "You could head for the hills. Or the hill - Mt. Hiei, I might suggest. Nice little temple, there. The monks could put ya up, 'til yer ready to sue for peace."

The Doctor had taken just half a step forward in his speech, but Go-Daigo's soldiers tightened the circle of spears, pressing him back a full step.

Jack and the Doctor maneuvered Rose between them, as far from the spears as they could manage. "Easy, boys," Jack soothed. "Those things are sharp!"

A triumphant roar of voices echoed from the hallway where the messenger had come from, and Go-Daigo rose to his feet. Their captors lowered their faces, mercifully easing back on their weapons enough to let Jack breathe.

"You would offer me sanctuary?" the Emperor asked the Doctor. "At your own execution?"

"Yeah, well," Rose answered, "if ya promise to forget about the execution part, we won't hold it against you. Now, can we all get outta here? Sounds like the samurai are comin'!"

"To the blue box!" Go-Daigo ordered. The spear-bearing soldiers all came to attention as he descended the stairs from his throne. The Doctor immediately led the way, unlocking the TARDIS' doors and racing up to the console.

Jack and Rose stationed themselves along the entry ramp, ushering in the Emperor and his court. "Bigger on the inside," Jack intoned, gesturing each stunned passenger aboard. "Keep it movin', please."

"Inside's bigger than the outside," Rose echoed. "Watch your step an' find somethin' to grab onto."

In practically no time, the Doctor had the ship sidestepped to their destination. As the TARDIS stilled, Rose pulled open the doors.

Go-Daigo approached first. "Enryaku-ji," he breathed. "Doctor, your magic is true." **  
**

"Yep, well, end o' the line, end o' the truce," the Doctor replied, stepping away from the console. "Off my ship an' we won't haveta bother with 'see ya later'."

The Emperor stepped out through the doors, into the growing gathering of monks in the courtyard of the Enryaku-ji monastery.

His cohorts followed more quickly, and much less gracefully, still giving furtive, terrified glances at the TARDIS' interior and the Doctor, himself. "Bye!" the Doctor waved exaggeratedly, shooing them out. **  
**

Jack leaned against the doorway as the Doctor joined them at the exit to the ship. Messenger Boy was the last out, sending Jack a wink of his own, before disappearing into the crowd.

"A'right, we'll be off, then," the Doctor announced.

"Wait," the Emperor pleaded, hand raised. "That we may part in peace," he offered, "I will pay for the Yellow Rose. She need not be taken by force."

"Ha!" Rose laughed, as the Doctor slung an arm about her shoulders. "Generous after all, that one," she commented to the Doctor.

Jack shook his head. "Rose isn't _taken_ by anyone," he corrected the Emperor. "Well, unless she wants to be..."

He had a smile for her and the Doctor all lined up and making its way across his face, when he turned to his companions and found them gazing into each others eyes. Before he could make another comment about unresolved tensions, the Doctor's head actually dipped towards Rose's!

A shout went up from the monks outside the TARDIS' doors, and before Jack knew what had happened, a formation of battle-ready men with shaved heads had arranged itself in front of them. Among the jumble of murmurs and accusations, he did hear "blatant facial contact!" quite clearly.

"Doctor?" Jack asked, as the Doctor and Rose broke apart.

"Ah. Did I mention, 'warrior monks'?" the Doctor asked. "Goodbye," he added, as the trio stepped back to slam the doors firmly in place.

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _So there I was with a seemingly entertaining, episode-by-episode concept, and I realize Rose and the Doctor never even touch in the entire "Bad Wolf" episode! Stuck on Chapter 2! Thank goodness for the Doctor's amnesia recovery exposition :)_

 _This chapter, by the way, has been painstakingly researched for historical accuracy... Okay, maybe "researched" is going a bit far. How's "Wikipedia'd"? Emperor Go-Daigo was actually the Emperor of Japan, deposed in 1336. "Go, Diego, Go!" was a cartoon, a spin-off of "Dora the Explorer". Thank you, **ChangerOfNames** ;)  
_


	3. Boom Town

**Chapter 3 - 01.11 - Boom Town**

"... 2006, Cardiff," the Doctor announced.

"That in the Milky Way?" Jack asked.

The Doctor chuckled, catching Rose's eye. "Yeah, I'd say so," he answered, noticing just that tip of her tongue peeking out from her grin.

The grin vanished, as Rose gasped, "Oh! I can ring Mickey!"

The Doctor's grin vanished as well. "Won't be there too long, if the rift's been active enough," he scrambled to explain. "Just need to recharge the TARDIS -"

"I… need 'im to bring my passport. Forgot to pack it," Rose explained, turning away with a sheepish expression as she slid open her superphone.

Quietly enough for Rose not to hear him, Jack leaned over to the Doctor. "Pass port," he drawled. "Haven't heard that one before, and here I thought I had the euphemism dictionary memorized."

The Doctor neglected to shoot Jack an appropriate glare and instead watched Rose unconsciously chewing her bottom lip in concentration, pressing the buttons on her device while she strolled towards him around the console.

As Rose brought the phone up to her ear, Jack leaned back in to the Doctor. "Now or never, Doc…" he prompted, gesturing meaningfully with his eyebrows towards Rose, who was waiting for Mickey to pick up.

 _"Hello?"_ Mickey's distorted voice sounded over the line.

Rose opened her mouth to answer, but the Doctor dove in and captured her lips with his own.

 _"Rose? That you? You there?"_ Mickey's distant voice inquired.

Rose slid the phone shut with a click, and wrapped her arms securely behind the Doctor's neck.

Jack gave a single, satisfied slap to the console. "Now, THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!"

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	4. The Doctor Dances

**Chapter 4 - 01.10 - The Doctor Dances**

Rose watched the nanogenes fly off into Jack's ship with just a dismissive wave of the Doctor's hand.

The Captain, himself, reappeared then, climbing back up from below the ship's deck to make some more adjustments on the main control panels.

Rose was reeling, and not just from having been teleported. There was Jack - gorgeous Jack - who, it seemed, would probably make a move on any girl he came across to get whatever he wanted at the time. Here was the Doctor, who she had thought would never make a move to save his own life - least ways nothing beyond flirting with his beautifully goofy grin... The Doctor, who (thanks to Jack's moves) had made it very - sort of? - clear that he possessed some rather impressive moves of his own...

"Take us to the crash site," the Doctor ordered Jack. "I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav-com back online," Jack reiterated. "Make yourself comfortable," he invited from the command chair. "Carry on with whatever it was you were... doing."

Rose fought a blush at the way Jack's eyes moved over her and the Doctor, his voice dripping with innuendo.

"We were talkin' about dancin'," the Doctor defended.

"It didn't look like talking," Jack countered.

"It didn't feel like dancin'," Rose observed. What it had felt like... She wasn't sure she was ready to qualify it. Somehow, the feel Doctor's hands on her own, inspecting her lack of rope burn, was seared more tantalizingly into her memory than any typical encounters on a dance floor - or spaceship hull.

Jack swiveled back out of his command chair, flashing them a smile. "Here, allow me," he said, flipping one last switch on the control panel. The Glen Miller music started up again as he ducked back below deck.

Rose watched Jack go, feeling the Doctor's eyes on her. She turned around, swaying slightly in time with the music as she stepped towards him. "Doesn't seem to be sufferin' any 'Doctor envy', him," she said, reaching for the Doctor's hand in an attempt to resume their dancing pose.

The Doctor gripped her hand lightly in his own and complied, placing his other on her waist. "Basic psychology, Rose," he lectured, while moving his feet in little more than a slow shuffle. "He's just overcompensatin' for his vast insecurities by actin' like he couldn't care less. Whereas me?" He shrugged.

"Ya really are jus' that impressive?" Rose finished for him, smoothing her hand over his leather-clad shoulder.

"Wouldn't wanna boast; doesn't mean I haven't got the right, fifty times over. I mean, look at this ship -"

"Thought we were talkin' bout men, not your toys," she interrupted.

"So I count as 'men', now, do I?" The Doctor asked.

He had drawn her in closer, and Rose shifted her hand from his shoulder to the collar of his jacket to match. "How 'm I s'posed to know what to expect from a time-travelin' alien, considerin' I'm just a simple human -"

"Jack's a simple human," he corrected her. "Runnin' a simple con to turn a simple profit. But you..." He released her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and gently shook his head. "Hardly simple," he said, his eyes sweeping over her face.

Maybe there was something to the Doctor's psychology, thought Rose, as she rested her free hand against his lapel, her thumb just brushing the fabric of his jumper. Instead of Jack's brash come-ons and physicality, the Doctor exuded an unshakable confidence that didn't need to be proven. With one hand at her waist and the other sliding down to her elbow, still the Doctor didn't actually pull her to him, but only inclined his head before Rose was quite willingly meeting his lips.

"Okay, this is more my style of 'talking'," Rose heard Jack announce upon his return.

The Doctor didn't pull away; neither did she, smiling into their kiss.

"So sweet," Jack went on, despite being pointedly ignored. "Still, I gotta ask: is there room for me to cut in?"

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _Romance aside, I liked how this moment captured both Rose and the Doctor with incomplete first impressions of Jack. My first thought for this chapter was to do the storeroom dancing scene, but it seemed almost too easy/expected. I thought I might be able to do... better than that ;)_

 _Oh, what's that you say? Echoes of Han Solo's "I'm nice men"? Hadn't noticed._

 _I don't own_ Star Wars _!_


	5. The Empty Child

_Do I need to do a_ Star Trek _disclaimer for this chapter? I didn't call him "Spock"; Rose did._

 _I don't own_ Star Trek _._

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - 01.09 - The Empty Child**

"'Mr. Spock'?" the Doctor asked incredulously, as Rose's new friend, Jack, made his way toward the hospital ward.

"What was I s'posed to say?" Rose defended, clearly exasperated. "You don't have a name. Don't ya ever get tired of 'Doctor'? Doctor _who_?"

If he had a penny for every time... "Nine centuries in, I'm copin'," he dismissed. "Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. 'S not a good time for a stroll," he chided, realizing he was more concerned with her penchant for wandering into trouble than her acquisition of a stranger from 1941 who expected them to be Time Agents.

"Who's strollin'?" she asked, turning away from him to follow after Jack. "I went by barrage balloon," she told him flippantly. "Only way to see an air raid."

"What?" was all he could ask, continually astounded by her incongruity.

"Listen, what's a Chula warship?" she asked, instead of answering.

"Chula?" the Doctor repeated, halting his steps. "Hang on, Rose," he called, Rose stopping with her hand on the door to the ward. "He's got a Chula warship?"

"Dunno what kinda ship he's got," she shrugged, as the Doctor stepped closer to her. "But it's tethered up to Big Ben. Took me dancin' on top of it," she explained rather dreamily. "Right there over the city," her hands spread out, gesturing, "floatin' above it all."

"Middle of an air raid, an' yer dancin'. And posin' as a Time Agent," the Doctor observed, careful not to let his amazement show on his face.

" _Jack_ did a scan for alien tech, by the way," Rose told him with a nod towards the closed doors. "'S how we found ya."

"Jack." The Doctor pulled the door open just enough to call to the Jack in question. "Don't touch any of 'em!" he shouted as the man neared one of the bedridden, gas mask-wearing patients. He let the door fall closed and shrugged at Rose. "So it's any pretty boy with a little technology, is it? Shoulda known ya only like me for my ship." He meant the comment lightheartedly, but realized with a jolt just how close it came to an accusation he'd recently regretted making.

"You can't actually be jealous," Rose said, with a worrying amount of certainty, and of course no notice of his slip-up's significance. "An' ya can't blame a girl for enjoyin' someone actually payin' attention..."

"I pay attention," the Doctor insisted, completely ignoring any mention of jealousy as he stepped a bit closer to her. "Noticed you'd wandered off _again_ , didn't I?"

Rose's eyes grew distant. "Hope he's alright," she said to herself, apparently not talking about Jack.

The Doctor's brows furrowed, but she didn't elaborate.

Rose blinked, coming back to herself and looking him in the eye. "Hello," she said, smiling as if she'd said something ironic.

The Doctor reassessed just how closely he was standing to her when she rested her hands on his chest. Oddly enough, he didn't step away. "Hi, there."

Rose tilted her head, appraisingly, and her arms slid up to his shoulders.

Had she really thought he'd never _noticed_ her, after everything they'd already been through together? He'd just died for her - never mind that her rewritten memories wouldn't retain it...

The Doctor stayed still, suddenly desperate not to ruin whatever moment had unexpectedly presented itself. He was sure that anything he did would do just that.

But what if he didn't do a thing? Would that ruin it, too?

Rose didn't seem to mind his inaction, letting her fingers curl around the back of his neck as she lifted herself up on tiptoe. Thankfully, she was taking his silence as the complete willingness that it was.

The Doctor decided then that at least a small concession was in order, bending ever so slightly under the gentle pressure of her hands in order to meet her lips.

Rose hummed quietly as her fingertips scraped gently along the back of his head, angling him better for her kiss.

And if the Doctor's hands found her hips, well, maybe it wasn't entirely for balance...

"Oh, come on," Jack's voice intruded.

Rose broke the kiss, still keeping her arms about the Doctor's neck.

Jack was holding both of the ward doors open, looking between the Doctor and Rose. "I'm all - and I mean _ALL_ \- for mixing business and pleasure," he assured them, "but we're on a tight schedule. Can we have a little focus, here, please?!"

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _Alas, that's the last of Captain Jack Harkness for this tale._

 _Regarding dying for Rose and rewritten memories, you can see my story, " **Rewritten** ", for more details :)_


	6. Father's Day

_Don't expect future chapters to be as long as this one..._

* * *

 **Chapter 6 - 01.08 - Father's Day**

"He made his money sellin' this Vitex stuff," Rose told the Doctor, as she crouched in the dining room corner by the cases of plastic bottles. Ordinary plastic bottles that Jackie and Pete stacked out of the way; plastic bottles that had become the stories of her childhood. "He had all sorts of jobs," she explained, "he was so clever." She looked over the room, and saw plans spread out on the dinner table. "Solar power," she recognized, moving to the table and running her fingers across the familiar papers. "Mum said he was gonna do this. Now, he can," Rose said, proudly.

Oh, she could hardly wait to stop at home again, to see her Mum _and_ Dad, to tell them the part she and the Doctor had played in the life they were sure to be enjoying.

The Doctor was still standing at the curtained entryway to the dining room, arms crossed tightly across his chest. His sullen expression hadn't dissipated at all since they'd accepted Pete's offer of a ride. "'Kay, look," Rose conceded, chafing just a bit at his sour reaction to her attempt at keeping under cover. "I'll tell 'im you're not my boyfriend."

"When we met, I said 'travel with me in space'; you said 'no'," the Doctor recalled, his eyes narrowed - completely not what Rose had expected. "Then I said 'time machine'."

He thought... he suspected she'd been leading up to this the whole time? "It wasn't some big plan," she denied, as calmly as she could. "I just saw it happenin'..." she'd been preparing herself, steeling herself to see Pete get hit again, just to run to his side in the street, "an' I thought, 'I can stop it'."

The Doctor glanced away from her, smiling humorlessly as he mused, "I did it again." When his eyes met hers again, they were cold. "I picked another stupid ape," he spat. Rose felt her heart drop at his scorn. "I shoulda known," the Doctor went on. "It's not about showin' you the universe, it never is. It's about the universe doin' somethin' for you."

Rose had known words could hurt; oh, had she ever; but she'd never quite felt them sting as much as this. What happened to only taking the best? "So, it's okay when _you_ go to other times, and _you_ save people's lives, but not when it's me savin' my Dad?" She felt the back of her neck warm at the injustice of it.

"I know what I'm doin'; _you don't_ ," he lectured, his voice rising. "Two sets of us bein' there made that a vulnerable point -"

"But he's alive!" Rose insisted. One little change to save one little, precious life.

"My entire planet died. My whole family," the Doctor countered with exactly why Rose had expected him to understand. "D'ya think it never occurred to me to go back an' save them?"

So, she had to trust the Designated Driver. And she'd forgotten that. "Look, you're right, okay?!" she told him, as loudly as she dared with Pete still in the flat. "I dunno what I'm doin'," she admitted.

But losing, having to lose, it didn't give him anywhere near the right to treat her like a piece of garbage.

"But ya knew I wanted to change things," Rose came back at him. "How was I s'posed to know what was too much?" She was only trying to take her cues from him, after all. "Told ya I wasn't tryin' to break the rules; why'd ya let me do anythin' at all?!"

Suddenly, he had no answer; standing straighter, his arms loosening, slightly. He wasn't brooding, he seemed... shocked?

"Why, Doctor?" Rose pressed.

She hadn't meant to mess things up. She hadn't meant to make him doubt her.

Rose calmed herself and sighed. She needed to tell him, "It wasn't - it wasn't 'travels in time'."

"What?" the Doctor asked sharply, seemingly startled out of his silence.

"It wasn't that you told me the TARDIS was a time machine," Rose clarified. "That's not why I came with you. I didn't even really think about it 'til ya asked me 'forwards or backwards'. It was just that ya came back at all."

"Rose -"

She pressed on, determined to explain herself. "I was so mad at myself when you vanished," she told him, looking at the floor to avoid his eyes, the words finally pouring out. "I was... sorta numb, walkin' away with Mickey, there. I couldn't believe I'd said 'no', an' it just felt like that was the way my whole life was doomed to go."

The Doctor's feet stepped into her line of sight. "Rose -"

"One stupid choice after another," she continued, "never takin' an opportunity when it comes knockin' -"

He clasped her shoulders. "I was tryin' to impress you!" he cut her off.

Rose looked up at him. "Huh?" she asked, eloquently.

"Impress ya, show off," he repeated, the ire from a moment ago completely gone from his eyes. "'S why I brought ya back here; why I let ya try - twice," he explained. "Ya just dropped off one boyfriend, figured we'd hardly turn around and you'd have another. 'I can do anythin'?" He scoffed. "I just told ya that's a load o' rubbish."

He released her shoulders, his hands sliding down her arms, as he spoke more gently.

"I didn't stop you 'cause it mattered to you, and I'd wished there was anythin' I coulda done to change what happened to my people." He took her hands in his, "An' I just wanted to make this work for you. Give ya somethin' I couldn't ever give myself." And then he said something almost just as shocking as the rest of it. "I'm sorry."

"Wow," Rose said, quietly. The Doctor's eyebrows climbed. "I mean, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, too," Rose told him, squeezing his hands. "Really. Shoulda stuck to the plan," she said, knowing it would have hurt like crazy, but he would have helped her through it.

The Doctor raised her right hand, pressing his lips against her knuckles. "Forgive me?" he asked.

Rose bit her lip. "Depends on how much ya really meant," she admitted.

The Doctor sighed, bringing both of her hands to his hearts. "Rose Tyler," he proclaimed seriously, locking his gaze with hers. "Ya made the best, wrong, spur-o'-the-moment decision ya could, with where I'd put ya. Not a stupid ape; never stupid."

"An' I guess," Rose told him with a grin threatening, "if you were just so overcome with my charms that ya weren't quite thinkin' straight..."

Rather than denying it he asked, "You really didn't care about time travel?"

She was grinning full out, now. "Nope," she told him with a shake of her head. The Doctor lowered their hands, and Rose stepped into the space he made available. "I love it, love it, love it; but didn't even give it a thought," she confirmed, swinging their hands at their sides.

The Doctor released her left hand to still her with a touch at her elbow, and placed a kiss on her forehead.

Rose's eyes fluttered closed as she relished the contact.

When she looked up at him again, she found she was nestled much more closely into his personal space, their faces so close to touching...

He lowered his head, then, to actually kiss her lips, for just barely too long to be a friendly peck.

"I forgive you," Rose told him, heart racing, as she reached her free hand up to his neck, silently begging for more.

He bent his head, and Rose was sure he was going to comply...

"Whoa, hello, again," Pete's voice sounded from the doorway. "Hoskins-Clarke weddin', then, shall we?"

The Doctor rested their foreheads together, then turned to offer Rose his elbow. "Shall we?" he echoed.

She threaded her arm through his. "We certainly shall."

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _Their fight in this episode seemed to be a classic example of saying more than they really meant; I thought it was a good place to intervene :) Sorry it took me so long to resolve the antagonism into fluffiness...  
_

 _I've got some more on the unaltered version of this episode in my story, " **Rewritten** ", if anyone's interested.  
_


	7. The Long Game

**Chapter 7 - 01.07 - The Long Game**

Rose knocked on the door to the spare TARDIS bedroom where she and the Doctor had stashed Adam the "night" before. "Adam?" she called, as she finished drawing her ponytail through its band. She knocked again, louder, not having heard any answer.

"Huh?" came his response, at last.

"Adam? It's Rose. Ya know where you are?" she asked. He'd been a little out of it after first coming on board the TARDIS, and had passed out in the console room when she had opened the doors for him onto actual outer space.

"Space ship," Adam replied. "TARDIS," he said, his voice drawing nearer. The door opened, revealing the frazzled young man.

"Sleep well?" Rose asked him as he stood, blinking, in the light of the corridor.

He yawned. "Sorry, yeah," he told her.

"There's breakfast, when you're ready," she offered.

"Uh... I mean, sure, I'll just," he gestured back over his shoulder into the room.

"Yeah," she allowed. "Ten minutes? I can come get ya."

"Thanks. Yeah," he told her, before stumbling back a step and closing the door once more.

Rose grinned to herself as she made her way back to the kitchen.

The Doctor was already there, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He had filled hers for her and placed it in her hands as she neared. "How's the intrepid explorer doin'?" he asked, grinning to himself without meeting her eyes.

"Probl'y likes the idea of space travel more than the reality, right now," she told him, passing him the sugar on her way to retrieve the milk from the refrigerator. She took a grateful sip of her coffee before leaving it on the counter. "Should we skip the Terulvian jam, ya think?" she asked, grabbing a jar of blackberry, instead.

"With his iron constitution?" the Doctor asked, piling toast on a plate. "I'd pass on the Terulvian; pity we haven't got any pabulum on hand."

Rose set the milk and jam out on the table, and took the toast from the Doctor. "I wish ya coulda heard 'im," she said, leaning back on the counter. "Braggin' 'bout hackin' the defense network an' all as a kid. Tryin' to convince me of all the alien life he was so sure was out there."

"How firmly are ya lookin' to put 'im in his place, then?" the Doctor asked, handing her the coffee again before leaning on the counter beside her.

"Ta," she told him, clinking their mugs together, then let out a breath, thinking it over. "Nothin' too drastic," she mused, "considerin' a nebula knocked 'im out cold for a few, solid minutes... Maybe future earth?" she suggested. "With lotsa alien interminglin'? Ooh, or a space station, maybe, like Platform One? But prob'ly without the explodin' planet."

The Doctor nodded as he took a sip of his drink. "Think I could accommodate that," he agreed.

Rose leaned her head on the Doctor's shoulder. "Should we tell 'im 'bout the time travel, ya think? Before we get there, I mean?"

"Remind me never to get on the wrong side of you needin' to teach someone a lesson," he said, smiling down at her.

"But still, that's a 'no'?" she grinned at him.

"Definite 'no'," he confirmed.

Rose shifted her mug to her other hand to link arms with him.

"We can scope out the lie of the land," the Doctor suggested. "Tell 'im we need to make sure it's safe, and I'll give you a few pointers on assessin' our new surroundin's. Show 'im how a real space traveler operates."

Rose lifted her head to turn towards him, genuinely surprised. "Ya mean, I get to be the impressive one?" she asked. She had wanted to share her knowledge of the wonders of the universe, but those wonders had included the Doctor.

"Your boyfriend; I don't need to show off for 'im," the Doctor shrugged.

Rose rolled her eyes. "What's that say 'bout you showin' off for me, then?" she countered.

"'S not showin' off," he denied.

"Oh, please!" she laughed. "You can't even make a coffee without showin' off," she told him, draining the last of the delicious brew from her mug before setting it down. The timer ding'ed, and Rose reluctantly pulled away from the Doctor to retrieve the eggs from the stove top.

"Jus' can't help it if yer that impressed without me even tryin'," he explained, stepping up behind her. He reached his arms around either side of her own. Taking one of the eggs from her, he balanced it in an eggcup, gave it a single, precise WHACK! with the edge of a spoon, and removed the top half of the shell in one perfectly clean piece.

Rose could feel his self-satisfied grin by her ear. She didn't know how, but she was sure that she could. Turning in his arms and actually seeing the smug expression left her with only one, viable option. He could blame her easily-impressed, limited-imagination, human brain if he didn't think snogging the Time Lord was an appropriate response.

Judging by the arms encircling her waist, she figured he'd decided to take pity on the poor earthling.

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _Please, be assured that no matter what any of you might say, the Doctor's reply to reviews of this chapter would be to vehemently deny any and all implications of domesticity contained within the above scene._


	8. Dalek

**Chapter 8 - 01.06 - Dalek**

The Doctor watched from the console as Adam staggered up the entry ramp. "Your box... your box... how's this box... it's bigger inside?"

Rose closed the TARDIS' doors, then moved to Adam's side. "Yeah, it is," Rose answered him, with a steadying hand on his arm. "'S alien, like the Doctor, here. Time and Relative Dimension in Space, we call it. The 'TARDIS'."

The corner of the Doctor's mouth turned up. "We" call it, she'd said.

"TARDIS," Adam repeated, weakly. "But we're still gonna be trapped in here. The cement, it'll just -"

Rose shook her head at her pretty boy. "We're not even underground, anymore."

"Whaddya mean?" Adam asked, leaning away from Rose in favor of gripping the entry railing.

"The TARDIS is a ship," Rose valiantly explained. "Already left the museum."

"When? How? Where?" Adam asked.

Rose turned towards the Doctor, as he triple-checked their destination.

Wouldn't do to be anything less than impressive, just now.

"Doctor?" she prompted.

"Always wanted to see the stars?" the Doctor asked. He threw the final lever and turned towards Adam and Rose. "Outside those doors is the Great Orion Nebula," he proclaimed, shifting his eyes from Adam's unfocused gaze to Rose's eager face. "Messier 42, ya mighta heard it called. One thousand, three hundred fifty-six light years from earth, 's got a mass two thousand times greater than yer sun, stretchin' twenty-six light years end to end. This is where stars are _born_." He nodded to the doors. "Rose?"

She pulled open the TARDIS' doors, standing aside to let Adam take in the view.

"Seven hundred twenty-three stars," the Doctor told them, "over a hundred eighty star systems already formed, and countin'."

Adam took a step closer to the doors, dropped his duffel beside his feet, swayed on the spot, and passed out.

"Your boyfriend passed out," the Doctor observed helpfully, moving across the platform from the console.

"Yeah," Rose answered, crossing her arms and leaning against the door frame without looking back at him. "Well, had a rough day. Let 'im sleep it off. This is amazin'."

The Doctor grinned at the back of her head, and stepped over Adam's useless form to join her at the end of the ramp, mirroring her pose. He did an extraordinarily poor job of schooling his features before she turned and looked across at him.

Her grin, and the roll of her eyes as she glanced back at Adam, made the Doctor's hearts leap. "Travelin' amongst the stars... not in out lifetimes, 'e said," Rose told him quietly, as she gazed back out at the nebula. "Sorry. Didn't think he'd take it this hard, not bein' the cleverest in the room for once."

"That why ya brought 'im?" the Doctor asked.

She bit her lip. "Yeah?" she admitted, laughing softly.

"Rose Tyler," he said, gently shaking his head, memorizing the look on her face as she studied the scene beyond the TARDIS' doors.

She shrugged. "Shouldn't haveta keep all this to yourself; 's better with two, right?"

"He makes three, if ya hadn't noticed," the Doctor informed her.

She turned towards him, looking as if she wanted to respond, but then did a double-take, reassessing him. He could practically see the wheels turning in her mind.

Just because a Dalek said it, didn't make it not true.

He uncrossed his arms, offering her a hand.

Rose took it, stepping into the center of the doorway with him, shoulder to shoulder, with the Great Orion Nebula before them.

The Doctor smiled, seeing Rose still struggling to put words to her thoughts.

"That mean..." she began at last, "you'd rather it's just us?"

"Just you an' me?" the Doctor repeated. "Haveta say I like the sound of that."

"Me too," she grinned up at him, squeezing the hand she held.

"Yeah?" he asked, smoothing his thumb over her wrist.

She nodded. "Yep," she told him with a certainty that shone in her eyes.

The Doctor's free hand brushed her hair back, as he marveled at the play of the nebula's light across her features.

A groan sounded from the ramp beside them, Adam slowly coming to.

Rose's shoulders slumped as she sighed, looking down at him.

The Doctor guided her face back to his with a finger beneath her chin, meeting her lips with his own before their guest could mutter more than, "Whaa?"

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	9. World War Three

**Chapter 9 - 01.05 - World War Three**

"There's always been a way out," the Doctor announced from his place by the sealed, cabinet-room window.

"Then why don't we use it?" Rose asked, incredulous.

Instead of answering Rose, the Doctor moved to the conference table, addressing Jackie through the speaker centered on the tabletop. "Because I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe," he told her.

" _Don't you dare,_ " Jackie responded immediately, as Rose moved away from the door and Harriet Jones and back towards him on the opposite side of the table. " _Whatever it is, don't you dare!_ "

He kept his eyes focused on the speaker, to steel his nerve. If he had to see the women's reactions to his plan... "That's the thing," he replied. "If I don't dare, everyone dies."

"Do it."

The Doctor looked up, startled, at the sound of Rose's calm voice. "You don't even know what it is," he breathed. "You'd just let me."

"Yeah," she assured him simply, holding his gaze.

" _Please, Doctor. Please_ ," Jackie's voice begged. " _She's my daughter. She's just a kid._ "

The Doctor pulled his eyes away from Rose's, and answered her Mum. "Do you think I don't know that?" he asked, desperate for someone to both realize the stakes and still give him permission. "Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standin' up and makin' a decision because nobody else will." And he did not want to be the one to make this decision...

"Then what you waitin' for?" Rose asked him.

The Doctor gazed across the table at her, and his hearts ached at the understanding he saw in her eyes. This wasn't blind faith or naïveté. Rose knew. She _knew_ she was putting herself in real danger, but trusted it had to be done..."I could save the world," he confessed, "but lose you," he told her, the admission hanging in the air between them, saying so much more than the words themselves.

And Rose smiled.

Leveraging one trainer-clad foot on the armrest of a chair, she vaulted onto the conference table, knocking aside Emergency Protocols and decanters as she scrambled across to skid, kneeling, at the edge of the table right in front of the Doctor.

"Oh, good gracious," Harriet cried, moving to retrieve the briefcase from the floor.

The Doctor caught Rose by the hips to steady her, as she threw her arms around his neck. She pressed her whole self to him, lips to knees, in a searing kiss, before pulling back to look him in the eyes. "A'right," she told him, breathless, grinning in what must have been a reflection of his own expression. "Then let's save the world."

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _I had to do it! I don't care how obvious the cabinet room scene was; this had to be done!_


	10. Aliens of London

**Chapter 10 - 01.04 - Aliens of London**

As fun as playing dress-up with Charles Dickens had been (fearing for her life and the lives of the whole human race - and the Doctor - aside), Rose was grateful to be back in her own, twenty-first century clothes. She set down the amazing, straightening, hair-drying brush in the en-suite of her TARDIS spare bedroom, wondering whether the Doctor might let her keep it when she went home.

Oh, she didn't want to go home. Well, she did, she wanted to see her Mum, her mates; but she so wasn't ready to leave this life of traveling in space and time...

She wasn't ready to leave the Doctor.

Rose stepped out into the TARDIS' corridor as the ship jostled to a stop, catching herself against the wall. "Doctor?" she called, making her way towards the console room.

He looked up as she entered, a smile blooming on his face. Rose sent him an answering grin, wondering briefly when just catching his eye had started to feel so... thrilling. Maybe she should go home, but maybe she really didn't want to.

Still, here they were.

"I know we mentioned stoppin' back home," the Doctor told her, as she climbed into the captain's chair. Her heart leapt at the way he had phrased it as definitely a brief visit. "But I got to thinkin', if ya didn't mind too much, there's a planet I'd like ya to see."

Rose shook her head, smiling. "Can't say I've ever turned down seein' a new planet," she answered, so relieved to put off possible goodbyes. "This okay?" she asked, gesturing towards her new, old apparel.

"Oh, fine; perfect," he assured her. "No human presence, yet, when I've landed us. An' the natives won't mind at all."

They were already there? "Where are we? When?" Rose asked, sitting up straighter.

"Still in 1869, actually, but the planet's called Delta Magna," he told her, jogging down the entry ramp to wait for her, his hand resting on the TARDIS' door.

Rose sprang up from her seat, and quickly joined him. The Doctor pulled the door open, allowing her to step out, first, once more.

She gasped, not having any words to describe or appreciate the scene before them. The grassy slope was bathed in blueish-violet moonlight. She couldn't be sure, but in the light shining from the TARDIS, she thought the grass itself might actually be blue.

"Seems like a good spot," the Doctor assessed, after following her just a few steps from the TARDIS. He shrugged out of his leather jacket, and spread it out like a blanket. "Care to join me?" he asked. The Doctor dropped down onto the right side of the jacket, leaning back with his hands pressed into the grass behind him.

Rose accepted the invitation, sitting just close enough to touch, but keeping her arms about her knees. She followed the Doctor's gaze up into the sky. "Two moons?" she asked, softly.

"Four, actually," he told her. "A third's just risin', there, behind the forest."

He pointed off towards the horizon to their left, leaning into her as he kept his balance one-handed, and Rose realized she could make out a brighter, purple glow amid the twilight. "'S beautiful," she told him, not knowing where to rest her gaze.

"Spent some time up on that moon there," he said, gesturing to the right. "Methane refinery; huge, giant squid. Was all the gas that made me think o' this place," he told her, without mentioning the Gelth by name.

The moons and the planet's whole atmosphere did seem to have something of a charge to it, a shimmery blue that reminded Rose of Gwenyth's angels - before they had started trying to take over the world...

A flare of blue erupted and quickly faded in the sky above them. "How long," Rose asked, "'til the first humans? Ya said there weren't humans here, yet."

"Five hundred ninety-one years," he answered.

Rose released her knees, leaning back on her own hands, nestling into the Doctor's side. "It's so beautiful," she breathed. "Bet we muck it all up, somehow."

"Well, depends on who ya mean by 'we'," the Doctor allowed.

Rose shivered at the feel of his voice as she lay against him.

"Different groups, different interests," he went on. "By the time I got here, there was an organized, human push-back against colonization. Even though the human race had to go somewhere, they'd started wakin' up to how they were goin' about it."

Rose nodded, turning her head on his shoulder to look over at him. "Hope for us yet, then?" she asked.

"Yep. Quite like hope," he said, gently.

In the otherworldly moonlight he looked truly alien, his blue eyes appearing the same color as his face - but with that face turned towards hers, the feel of his body beside hers, she felt more at home than she ever remembered.

He leaned into her again, without any pretext of pointing anything out to her, and Rose happily melted into his kiss beneath the purple-blue-tinged sky.

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _You can find John Smith's sketch of Delta Magna in Chapter 4 of "_ _ **03 08AU Human Nature**_ _". I'm so glad I finally got to write this scene - and with a bonus kiss, to boot!  
_

 _The Fourth Doctor, Romana, and (technically) K-9 visited Delta Magna III in "The Power of Kroll" - which I haven't actually seen._

 _(This might seem more like a post-"The Unquiet Dead" chapter instead of a pre-"Aliens of London" chapter, but I justify it by mentions of Rose returning home, her outfit from the latter, and the Doctor's smile from the start of the episode.)_


	11. The Unquiet Dead

**Chapter 11 - 01.03 - The Unquiet Dead**

The Doctor was probably enjoying this a little too much.

"First of all ya drug me," Rose shouted at the undertaker seated before her, "then ya kidnap me... An' don't think I didn't feel yer hands havin' a quick wander, ya dirty old man."

"I won't be spoken to like this!" Mr. Sneed spluttered, indignantly.

"Then," she went on, unheeding, "ya stuck me in a room full o' zombies! An' if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! What?!"

The Doctor blinked, realizing her last exclamation had been directed at him. He made no effort to reign in his grin as he shrugged where he stood, leaning against the fireplace mantel. "Jus'... yer beautiful when yer all righteously indignant," he told her.

Rose's hands rested firmly on her hips as she squared off opposite him. "Considerin'?" she prompted hotly, hearkening back to his earlier assessment of her ensemble.

The Doctor laughed a refreshing, honest, straight from the hearts, how-did-a-ray-of-sunshine-find-its-way-into-the-darkness laugh. In two strides he was standing right in front of her, his own hands resting on her waist. "Considerin', in all the vastness of time an' space, I'm jus' so glad I met you."

"Oh," she breathed, softly. Rose grabbed the sleeves of his jacket, leveraging herself up high enough to briefly but firmly press her lips to his. "Um... Me, too?"

As Rose came down from her tiptoes, the Doctor was probably the only life form present that could notice his brief hesitation before he ducked his head, chasing her retreating mouth, and taking full advantage when her lips parted in a startled gasp.

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	12. The End of the World

**Chapter 12 - 01.02 - The End of the World**

The Doctor stole a chip from Rose's depleted portion as she headed off to the loo, and winced at the overpowering vinegar. He licked his fingers clean and then wiped them on a paper napkin as he studied the twenty-first-century street outside the window.

When he'd seen Rose's face, when she'd been staring out at the ruined, meteoroid chunks of the earth, he'd been sure she'd want to go home to stay. But instead, just a little reassurance was all she needed, and it seemed like somehow she might actually want to stay... with him, to keep traveling with him.

The Doctor felt her approach, even before he caught her reflection in the window of the chippy. He was surprised she'd returned so quickly, but turned to welcome her back. "Rose?" he asked, when she just stood next to his bench seat instead of resuming her own.

It took him probably a moment longer than it should have before he realized this wasn't his Rose.

Her usual, intriguingly-golden timeline was shimmering in an intricate weave he didn't dare decipher. That, and almost every aspect of her outward appearance had also changed. Her hair was smooth and blonde to the roots, makeup much lighter, hoodie traded in for a purplish leather jacket...

Future Rose, then?

Before he could question her, Future Rose grinned, climbed in beside him on the bench, grabbed the lapels of his own leather jacket, and proceeded to snog the lives out of him.

Now, being a time-traveler, there was always the chance of meeting someone out of order, including complete strangers who might kiss him seemingly out of the blue. Considering that they very well might become someone he would want to be kissing - or at least acquainted with - the Doctor had adopted as standard practice a polite response to such assaults.

But with Rose scraping her fingernails against the back of his neck, carding through his short-cropped hair... her lips, her tongue, oh, her taste - however much time had passed for her, he could tell she still liked her chips the same. Somehow the Doctor didn't mind the vinegar so much - not when it was mixed with the taste of Rose Tyler...

And with Rose, he was astounded to realize, despite his relatively brief association with Future Rose's past counterpart, "his" Rose, there was already something there, something that made him eagerly reciprocate her unexpected advances here in the chippy.

She released him suddenly, breaking the kiss. "Rose," he gasped, opening his eyes to find her sitting back on the bench beside him, chewing on her lower lip.

She leaned back in to briefly kiss his lips once more, before whispering in his ear, "Thanks. I needed that."

Before he could more than blink, she'd pulled completely away, and dashed right out of the shop without a backwards glance.

He stared after her through the window, amazed.

"Y'alright?" Rose's voice asked.

He turned to find his Rose sliding into the seat opposite him.

She made quick work of her remaining, vinegar-drenched potatoes; then licked her fingers clean, the Doctor somehow managing not to offer to help. "Ya gonna finish those?" she asked, indicating his own chips, which he hadn't touched since she'd excused herself earlier.

He swallowed, hard, and just barely found his voice. "Not hungry for chips, ta," he told her.

She just shrugged, and dragged them across the table. "Wouldn't want 'em to go to waste, they're gorgeous," she explained, before upending the vinegar bottle over the remains of his portion.

His Rose had only just picked up the first chip from his former plate, when something inside the Doctor snapped. He shifted out of his seat, around the table, and slid in beside her.

"Change your mind?" she asked him after she swallowed, wide-eyed, but not shrinking away.

"Could say," he allowed, before cupping the back of her head in his hands and stealing one (at least) more taste of Rose, vinegar, and chips.

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To be continued..._

 _Future Rose actually appears courtesy of Chapter 3 of my Series 3 AU story, " **03 07AU 42** ", which is built around the episode "42" with a whole lot of extra 10Rose - and which features Rose's perspective of the first kiss. So, you could say this is an AU part of my AU, or make it a random universe-hopping jump from Rose's Dimension Cannon exploits. Either way, I hope you enjoyed ;)_


	13. Rose

**Chapter 13 - 01.01 - Rose**

Rose was forced back onto the sofa, the disembodied mannequin arm pressing her down into the cushions.

Dr. What-Was-It whipped out his blue, flashy torch thing, and finally managed to pry the living plastic away from her face.

The plastic fingers continued to flex while he pressed the button on his torch, until he held the tube to the hand with a prolonged whirring. "'S alright, I've stopped it," he told her. "There ya go. Ya see?" he asked, suddenly flinging the - thankfully deactivated - plastic back at her.

"Rose? What's goin' on out there?" Jackie's voice called as Rose reflexively caught the arm.

"Nothin', Mum!" Rose shouted back, but her mother was already walking into the room, still in her pink dressing gown.

Thinking as fast as she could, and desperate to keep Jackie out of the murderous plastic aspect of her job blowing up, Rose pressed the mannequin arm into the doctor's chest, used her free hand to yank his head down, and crashed her lips against his.

"What the bloody?! -" Jackie exclaimed.

Rose broke the kiss with an exaggerated gasp, holding the doctor close to her by the lapel of his leather jacket in order to keep the plastic arm concealed while she stood with him. "Really sorry, Mum!" she apologized, backing him around the shattered coffee table and towards the door. "Got carried away; can't explain, now."

The doctor at least had caught on, keeping one hand on the plastic arm and the other on hers, in order to maintain their awkward embrace as they shuffled through the flat. "Mrs. Tyler, is it?" he asked Jackie. "'Fraid we'll haveta continue the inquiry off the premises."

Rose wrenched open the front door, grabbed her hoodie, and shoved the doctor through ahead of her, only then releasing him in order to slam the door shut behind them. "Hold on a minute!" she called to him, realizing he was already tearing down the staircase, arm in hand. She chased after him, determined to get some answers. "Ya can't jus' go swannin' off!"

* * *

Or, even better than that...

* * *

 _To the epilogue...  
_


	14. Born Again

_Okay, so_ _ **Twylyte**_ _unlocked the secret, Easter egg epilogue. It's inspired by a combination of **Twylyte** 's Chapter 13 review and **Bonnie5572** 's " **Because I Wanted To** " review (from... seven years ago?!). Here goes!_

* * *

 **Epilogue - 02.00 - Born Again**

"Time Lords have this little trick," the Doctor told Rose, understatement being his go-to response in this unbelievably mind-boggling situation. How was she even alive? "It's sorta a way of cheatin' death," he explained, relieved to see her get a hold on her urge to run to him and somehow help. "Except," he went on, debating whether it might just be worth it to feel her arms around him one last time... "it means I'm gonna change."

As much as it tore at his hearts to have to do this to her, and as clear as the companions that hadn't dealt well with it were in his mind's eye; he couldn't help but be amazed and thrilled that regeneration seemed to still be within his reach after his bout with the Time Vortex. Still, he fought to hold off the change long enough to give Rose something of an explanation.

"An' I'm not gonna see you again," he admitted. "Not like this." It felt like dying, every time. Even though he had the memories of walking away from regenerations as a new man, he also remembered that terrible pull, the tearing away of his previous selves. "An' before I go -"

"Don't say that," she told him emphatically, her restraint slipping enough to take half a step towards him.

"Rose," he said gently but firmly, "before I go, I just wannna tell you: you were fantastic." He had to grin, lest he give in and mirror her own, welling tears. Each breath took him palpably closer to his very last as this him. "Absolutely fantastic!" he insisted, feeling his time slipping away, needing to let the process take its course, and soon.

But Rose's expression morphed before his eyes, slipping from worried and hurt into something dangerously close to resolution. "Stop talkin' like that!" she insisted. "I jus' got back to you... somehow, I dunno how," and she took a full step closer as she spoke, "but I know it's right where I need to be." Her hands fisted at her sides. "With you."

"Rose, No!" the Doctor shouted, terrified as she closed the distance between them. "Stay away!" he warned, despite her firmly wrapping her arms behind his neck. "Get -"

Her lips met his forcefully, as his hold on the regeneration energy slipped completely free of his grasp. For a moment, to his golden-tinged vision, she looked just like Bad Wolf again. But as the regeneration overtook him, all of his senses deserted him. He was left cut off from her and the rest of the universe, as his consciousness struggled through the change.

Images from nowhere in his actual, linear experience presented themselves to his mind, all bathed in the same, golden energy of the Time Vortex. His lips on Rose's, time and again, where he could have sworn he'd always been too much of a coward. Right in front of Jackie, Charles Dickens; beneath the moons of Delta Magna; on and on it went, the might-have-been's, the should-have-been's...

"The _could be's,"_ Rose's - no, Bad Wolf's - voice echoed.

* * *

She hurt. Oh, Rose hurt. Her head, her chest, her fingers... Even her left small toe hurt, and she couldn't imagine why or how she was bothering to be so exact when her whole world seemed to be made of pain.

She'd known it was a bad idea to ignore the Doctor explaining the Time Lord stuff. She'd known, but something had kept her from listening. Something... Emergency Program One, that was it. He'd looked at her just the same way his hologram had, like he expected her to somehow have a fantastic life without him.

Awareness beyond the pain returned, with her heels coming back down to rest on the TARDIS' grating. The pain faded so suddenly, she was surprised to remember how much there had just been. She was somehow not collapsing, and realized there were arms around her waist, supporting her even more than her own arms now loosely draped over the Doctor's shoulders.

The Doctor!

Why couldn't she see him? Her hands moved to his shoulders, and she gasped her first, deep breath since he'd exploded in golden light. The comforting feel of his leather jacket met her palms, and she slid her hands up to his neck, cupping the back of his head -

Her surprise forced her eyes open, and Rose was simultaneously relieved to discover her eyesight had only been impeded by her own, closed eyelids; and shocked to find a different man's face looking back at her, her fingers buried in the thick hair that had taken the place of her Doctor's buzz cut.

She had half a mind to pull away, but somehow only half. As her gaze settled on his eyes, a darker brown than even her own, she recognized them... somehow. "Hello?" she breathed, just barely holding back from actually calling him "Doctor", even though her hearts ached to, begged her to, even.

There was a look of pure amazement on his face, but Rose had only a moment to study it. One of his hands slid up her back, drawing her closer as his head angled down to kiss her lips.

 _Rose_ , she heard, although his mouth was thoroughly occupied.

When they parted, Rose found herself nearly as unsteady as she had been a minute ago. Thankful for the anchor of their embrace, she let her eyes drift open, taking in the Doctor's (there was absolutely no doubt in her mind that he was, indeed, _her Doctor_ ) beaming smile.

"Hello," he answered her, at last.

* * *

There. That's better.

* * *

 _The end._

 _I've spent ten years in this fandom without ever really writing Nine. THIS WAS SO FUN! Thanks, all, for joining me on this ride._


End file.
